1. Brief Description of the Prior Art
Recent developments in electrostatic copying, and particularly xerography, have permitted many new copying techniques to be quickly and efficiently performed. So-called engineering copiers capable of reproducing blue line prints, sepias, CAD plots and cut-and-tape composites in high quality copies are now economically available and in widespread usage. Originals as large as thirty-six inches in width, and of great length can be copied, and copiers which can simultaneously make multiple copies of multiple original documents are in use.
In my U.S. Pat. No. 4,270,911, I have described an accessory or adjunct to a xerographic copier which permits elongated oil and gas well logs to be easily and accurately copied onto a specially prepared copy paper which is fed from a roll mounted on a special roll-supporting stand which is positioned adjacent the xerographic copier. Elongated electrocardiograms and computer printouts can be similarly copied.
In my U.S. Pat. No. 4,365,733, I describe a xerographic copying machine by means of which a plurality of elongated fan-folded original documents can be concurrently fed through the copier, along with a wide copy paper capable of having both of the original documents simultaneously copied thereon. The copy paper is fed from a roll supported on a stand placed adjacent the copier. The copy roll-supporting stand can continuously feed rolls of widely varying widths of copy paper to the copier.
2. Brief Description of the Present Invention
The present invention provides an electrostatic copying system which is quite versatile in its utility, and which includes, inter alia, a copying capability which enables it to simultaneously copy a plurality of original oversized elongated documents. The originals are copied onto a plurality of elongated individual copy papers fed at independent speeds from a plurality of copy rolls mounted immediately adjacent the copier. The system is especially adapted to the copying of multiple elongated oil and gas logs to yield copies of consistently high quality. As many as six different half-sized well logs can be concurrently copied. Alternatively, a single oversize document of up to thirty-six inches in width can be copied on correspondingly sized copy paper.
Broadly described, the electrostatic document copying system of the invention includes a plain paper engineering copier of xerographic type which can receive variously configured oversized and regular original documents from a location adjacent the top of the copier. In a preferred mode of operation, a plurality of elongated, fan-folded, transversely perforated original documents can be fed from a series of feed trays mounted at the top of the copier and these feed trays may be of the type described in my U.S. Pat. No. 4,365,733, or they may be multi-part magnetic bin feeders of the type described in my U.S. Pat. No. 4,486,093.
Carried on the forward (operator) side of the copier is a copy roll paper feeding rack which can adjustably support from one to six variously sized rolls of copy paper at selected distances from the copier. From two to six rolls of copy paper can be simultaneously fed to the copier in synchronism with a corresponding or greater number of original documents (in the latter case, for example, two originals may be placed on a single copy roll). The feeding rack is detachably mounted on the copier to facilitate removal when desired in order to permit certain other types of document reproduction to be carried out.
Paired copy paper guide channels are detachably mounted on the copier in copy paper-receiving alignment with each copy paper roll supported on the feed rack. The copy paper guide channels are quickly adjustable to accommodate them to the guidance of copy paper of varying widths. The copy paper feed rack includes a frame attachable to the copier for orientation in a substantially horizontal plane. The feed rack carries a plurality of horizontally spaced, cantilevered telescoping copy paper roll-supporting arms. The roll-supporting arms are individually, selectively extensible. They are arranged to cooperatively cradle and support a plurality of contiguous copy paper rolls to facilitate simultaneous feeding of copy paper from multiple rolls. Such simultaneous feeding permits a plurality of original documents to be simultaneously copied in this system. Individual braking elements are carried on the free outer ends of each of the copy paper roll-supporting arms, and each braking element bears against an adjacent copy paper roll to prevent it from feeding copy paper too rapidly into the copy paper machine, to stabilize and guide the flow of the copy paper, and to prevent the copy paper roll from undergoing backlash of the copy paper carried thereon.
An important object of the present invention is to provide a multiple copy paper feeding device which permits elongated, oversized plain copy paper to be fed into an electrostatic copier at a controlled rate with the feed of copy paper from each of several rolls proceeding simultaneously.
Additional objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent as the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment of the invention is read in conjunction with a perusal of the accompanying drawings which illustrate such preferred embodiment.